BATTLE OF WATTIGNIES. 53 
It will be asked, no doubt, where Carnot had gained 
this firmness, this vigour, the military coup dil, that 
knowledge of troops? Seek not for the source but in his 
ardent patriotism. It was at Wattignies that for the first 
time he heard the musketry and cannon of the enemy. 
But I am mistaken, Gentlemen ; it is the second, and not 
the first time: the first time, Carnot, marching as at Wat- 
tignies, musket in hand, at the head of a new levy of sol- 
diers, carried the town of Furnez by assault, then occupied 
by the English. 
The battle of Wattignies, considered as to its results, 
will always occupy one of the foremost places in the 
annals of the French Revolution. I should probably be 
less positive on the difficulties of that day, compared 
with so many others, if I could not support myself by 
the opinion of the Prince of Cobourg himself. When he 
saw the French battalions begin to break, that general 
could not find terms too strong to express, in presence of 
his staff, the confidence that he felt in the number and 
ardour of his troops, and in the obstacles of all sorts, both 
natural and artificial, that the uneven ground occupied by 
the Austrians presented to the assailants. He exclaimed: 
“The Republicans are excellent soldiers ; but if they dis- 
lodge me from this position, I will consent to become a 
Republican myself” Certainly nothing more decided or 
more energetic could issue from the mouth of Cobourg. 
For my part, I could not conceive a more glorious bulletin 
of the battle of Wattignies ! | 
The German author from whom I have borrowed this 
anecdote does not say whether, after having dislodged him, 
the French summoned the Austrian general to keep his 
word. I have.some reason to suppose that, notwithstand- 
ing their spirit of propaganda, they disdained a recruit 
